Finding Solutions to Louisiana'sPost-Katrina Election Problems

Posted
on October 16, 2005

In
the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana voters and election
administrators will face numerous challenges that threaten to undermine
the state’s democratic processes. These issues include congressional
and state legislative districts of wildly disparate sizes, thousands of
displaced voters without stable absentee voting addresses, and FEMA's
refusal to share the temporary addresses of hurricane victims with
state election administrators.

To
address these issues, FairVote calls for the temporary use of
multimember districts using proportional voting systems, so that the
one-person, one-vote and Voting Rights Act principles can remain intact
-- without need for an expensive and ineffective mid-decade
redistricting
or a new census. Additionally, Louisiana should expand its current use
of
ranked ballots for overseas voters to include displaced Hurricane
Katrina victims, to ensure that these voters are not disenfranchised in
the state's runoff elections. At a minimum, FEMA should allow state
election officials to mail information to displaced hurricane victims,
so that they can fully participate in upcoming elections.